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Gregory David "Greg" Weisman is an American comic book and animation writer and producer. He is best known as the creator of Disney's Gargoyles, and the supervising producer of The Spectacular Spider-Man. He has also written episodes for Kim Possible.

Career

Weisman is a former English composition and writing teacher and received degrees at Stanford University and USC. During an interview done during Comic-Con International 2010, Weisman revealed that while 22 years old, he wrote a four issue mini-series for DC Comics starring the superheroine Black Canary. The first issue of the series was penciled, but the project was ultimately shelved due to the character being used in writer/artist Mike Grell's high profile Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters series. Elements from the ill-fated project were used for his DC Showcase: Green Arrow short film.

Later in his career, Weisman worked as a production executive at Disney. While working at Disney, in conjunction with others, Weisman pitched early versions of the TV series, Gargoyles both in-house and to networks. Eventually, the Gargoyles series idea underwent a transformation from its initial conception as a largely comedic cartoon to a darker serial animated drama, and the series was produced for syndication. Though Gargoyles itself bears no on-air creator credit, Weisman describes himself on his website as "one of the creators" of the show. Aired as a syndicated show for 65 episodes, Gargoyles was later picked up for a further 13 episodes by ABC. Weisman was credited as a co-producer of Gargoyles from episode 6, and as a supervising producer for much of the show's second season. However, he has disassociated himself from the third season episodes of Gargoyles—somewhat ironically, as the debut third season episode for ABC bears Weisman's only writing credit of the entire series.

Weisman's other TV credits include overseeing the second season of W.I.T.C.H. and The Spectacular Spider-Man, Weisman has also written for numerous animated series, including Men in Black: The Series, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, and Kim Possible. Weisman wrote the series bible for Max Steel and produced the show's first season. Weisman voice directs and voice acts on occasion; he played the role of Donald Menken on The Spectacular Spider-Man and Lucas Snapper Carr on Young Justice.

Weisman is notable for the question and answer forum he participates in with Gargoyles fans online, often revealing his intended plans for the show.

Weisman has also written for comics, including Gargoyles, a continuation of the storyline from the television series. Weisman was not new to comics, having spent time at DC as an editor and co-writing Captain Atom with Cary Bates. A parody of Gargoyles later appeared in a Weisman-penned story in JLA Showcase #1.

In addition to his work on Young Justice, Greg Weisman, along with Kevin Hopps, became full-time writers of the tie-in comic as of issue #7 (as well as issue #0).

He also directed the 2001 English dub localization of the 1991–1996 Japanese anime OVA series 3x3 Eyes. He used voice talents who previously worked with him on Gargoyles. Homages to Gargoyles in the OVA series include a homeless man humming the Gargoyles theme song and a character who says "What could make claw marks in solid stone?".

Influences and Style

Weisman has been a great lover of the works of William Shakespeare. Many of his works have been influenced by Shakespeare by not only using Shakespeare character names but often similar storytelling. This includes: Macbeth, The Weird Sisters, Oberon, Titania and Puck, all characters from Gargoyles loosely based on characters from Shakespeare's work. The penultimate episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man, "Opening Night", had a majority of the characters acting out a stage rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which interchanged with scenes of Spider-Man escaping the Vault prison and subsequently fighting the Green Goblin.

There has also been an affinity for casting actors involved with the Star Trek franchise in his series, including Nichelle Nichols, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Bruce Greenwood.